Young Economist of the Year offers his austerity advice to the chancellor

If Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne ever needs advice on the economy, Calum You could be the ideal person to give it.

If Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne ever needs advice on the economy, Calum You could be the ideal person to give it.

Calum, a year 13 student (pictured above), is the winner of the 2012 Young Economist of the Year award.

The annual competition challenges 6th form students to write an essay on a major current problem or topic of concern.

Calum’s essay – entitled Lamentations of a Chancellor: Is there a better way out of the debt crisis than austerity? – was chosen from more than 750 entries.

He argued that “growth through fiscal expansion will improve the country’s debt situation”, rather than “the vicious circle of cutting and shrinking we are currently in”.

Judges Richard Blundell, president of the Royal Economic Society, Charles Bean, deputy governor of the Bank of England, and BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders said Calum’s entry was “a brilliantly crafted essay showing a clear understanding of a timely and complex subject”.

Calum, 17 and a student at Eton College, wins £1,000 and a glass trophy for his essay and will receive his prize at the Royal Economic Society’s annual public lecture in London in November.

He is studying for A levels in maths, further maths, physics, chemistry and Chinese and hopes to study natural sciences at the University of Cambridge.

“I’m really pleased to have won,” he told SecEd, “and extremely grateful that the adjudicators thought so highly of my essay.”

Second place went to Ravi Prasad of Bradford Grammar School while James King, from St Paul’s School, west London, and Andrew Mitson, from Sutton Grammar School, were joint third.

The Royal Economic Society was founded in 1890 to promote the study of economic science. Visit www.res.org.uk